959. Learn Just Enough (Then Go To Work)

There's a big difference between doing "just enough" and learning "just enough." When you "do just enough," you're cheating yourself and your potential, but when you learn "just enough," you're bold, courageous, and not afraid of looking foolish, embarrassed, or ignorant. 

Today's episode comes from the inspiration of Tolstoy,

“It’s better to know less than we are able to know than to know more than we need to know. Don’t be afraid of ignorance, but beware of anything superfluous or anything that can overburden you just so that you can boast about how much you know.”

Transcript

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All right. 3, 2, 1. Let's get it. I wanna read to you this morning. A quote from Tolstoy once again, uh, I love Tolstoy, man. Those of you who have rocked out with me for a while, you're like, oh, here we go with another Tolstoy quote. So anyway, so, so what I do every morning, just to kind of give you a, the, the ritual of what I do is, is there are, uh, Tolstoy has some, some daily. Messages. So basically they're dated and so they're, they're basically little affirmations, I guess, that are little quips of knowledge that you can learn along the way. And sometimes he quotes someone else, or a lot of times it's his own writings. I don't really know that much about Tol story, but some of these, some days, man, I read these. I'm like, all right, and then I move on to the next one. And this was one of those, wait, what? Kind of quotes. Like you read it and you're like, wait, what? And I had another book I was gonna read out of Ryan Serhant's book, I think Big Money Energy or something like that. I, I don't have it next to me, but that was the book I was gonna read this morning. But I always kind of start with, um, Tolstoy and, and, um, I've been reading out of Brian Eisenberg's book, I think a Swallowed an Elephant. His chapters are like one page long, so I kind of use it as like a daily. I don't know, daily affirmation, daily primer. And then I go on to like my 15 minutes of random reading. So my 15 minutes of random reading saying all that to say is normally probably in all actuality about 30 minutes.'cause I read a couple of little passages. But anyway, I never got to Ryan Serhant's book this morning because I stopped on Tolstoy. So let me read it to you all the way through and then I wanna unpack this. Like I always do the way that I see it. So here's what he wrote. It's better to know less than we were able to know than to know more than what we need to know. Don't be afraid of ignorance, but beware of anything superfluous or anything that can overburden you just so that you can boast about how much you know. I love this quote. I really do. Because when you write, and I would say like, if there's something man that kind of snags your soul and you're like, man, that's, that's kind of deep, that's kind of interesting. Well, then you don't have to read anything else. Like if something snags your soul, write it out. I would tell you, I, you know, I have, you know, this little bitty passage right here. Ended up being like three pages of thought. And I was like, man, I gotta run with this thought. Like, what does this mean to me? And it's a, it's a magical thing when you can write this out. The long form of writing causes you to think along the way. And you're gonna see words that you didn't see before, like you read them. But you didn't really see them because you know, at first I saw it's better to know less than we were able to know. Don't be afraid of ignorance, blah, blah, blah. Okay. So that was the first part I saw. But as I wrote this, I totally missed. It's better to know less than we were able to know what this part I missed then know more than what we need to know. I'm like, well, that's true too. So let me, uh, let me unpack this. So the first part, it's better to know less than we were able to know. Let's stop right there. It's better to know less than we were able to know, bro. That's an awareness right then and there. The fact that you, you, you know. There's more. You have the ability and the capacity. That's what ability is. It's the capacity, it's the opportunity to know more. Yet you, you, you, you don't get all you, you don't overfill the tank. So it's better to know less. Than what we are able to know. That's an awareness. There's more out there right then and there. You know, there's more out there that you don't know than you do know, so to Tolstoy's point, to know less than we are able to know. Yes, the opportunity is there. Yes, the capacity is there yet. I would rather be a practitioner than a theorist. Okay. There's a lot of theoretical people out there. There are not that many. Probably in a ratio it's probably 70 to one. There's probably, for every 70 theorists out there, there's one practitioner. So to the first part, it's better to know less than we were able to know you're not overfilling the tank, so knowing less, this is what keeps you hungry. This is what keeps you striving and driving for more so, because you're able to know. And so now I have, I, I'm able to know more, yet I gotta get to work. I gotta go apply it. And so with this, this hunger, you, you, you have the hunger to know more, but you have this desire and this drive to, to take some of what I've learned, fractional learning, and then boom, go apply. This is why I am a huge advocate. I push this all the time of reading 15 minutes every day of the 15 minutes of random reading a random book every single day. I have tried to read a book cover to cover in recent years. I, I really just, I'm sorry, I just can't do it. I've developed such a habit and such a desire to learn just a little bit of something else. So instead of me sitting there for hours learning, learning, learning. I want to prime my day. I, I learned something. I write about my take on it, which is what this episode is. I'm sharing firsthand. This is what I learned today. This is how I see it, and now I'm gonna go live it. I all so it, it's, it's, it's a wonderful thing to just learn just enough. Then go out there and make it a game. Go out there and see how much of it that you can apply. Because I don't want to be some sort of scholar. I don't want to sit there and read for 10 hours a day and just vegetate in that. No, I wanna learn just enough. And then boom, I want to get out there and apply it. It's like, it's kinda like this. I, it's like putting 20 bucks in the tank, your fuel tank in your car, right? I mean, you have the ability. To go ahead and top it off, but you know, I'm a $20 on pump five kind of guy. I'm, I don't wanna sit there all day long and, and, and pump a hundred dollars worth of gas. No, I just need to get down the road. I'll come back to it. So it's kind of like what that is. I put 20 bucks in there and guess what? I can probably go a few days on that. 20 bucks. That's what knowing less, but that hunger for more, that thirst for more, that driving and striving for more that application. That's kind of like what that is in the analogy. You're putting 20 bucks in the tank, pew you out the door, let's go. And as I do, man, I learn, I adjust, I apply, and then I come back and I examine it. I make the necessary adjustments and then I reapply again. So I love that second part, well, let me back it up. It's better to know less than we were able to know. That's the first part, second part, then to know more than we need to know, pure and simple to know more than we need to know. This is what makes you bloated. This is what will make you judgmental and cynical and critical. See, bro, when you're, when you, when you know more than you need to know. Your chair becomes a throne. It's what it does. See, you, you, when you, when you know less and do more, you learn just enough, and you go out there and you apply it. That's a chair mentality. Alright? You sit in the chair, you, you, you, you put that time aside, you learn it, and then you go apply it. But then you have the other people that just want to know everything. Okay? The chair becomes then the throne. The throne of cynicism. The throne of judgment. And so what you're doing is, is you're pointing out the flaws in everybody else. Yet you ain't doing nothing yourself. And so you're criticizing the world instead of critiquing your own work. There ain't no work to critique because you're too busy criticizing everybody else. Third part. So first part, our first and second part. It's better to know less than we're able to know than to know more than we need to know. You still with me now? Third part, do not be afraid of ignorance. I love this. So there's ig-nant and then there's ignorance. Okay? The the two are not the same. ignant are like people, man, who, they say things, they do things, and you're just like, what the fuck? The, these, those are ignant people. Like you just, you don't even the, they're so stupid and off the rails, like you're like, bro, I'm not even, I'm not even gonna waste my time. Even trying to educate them. They're just ignant. They don't want to learn anything. They don't want to do any better. Boom, y'all okay, that's ignant Ignorance is different. Ignorance. To Tolstoy's Point ignorance is simply a lack of knowledge or information. That's all it is. And so when you have a lack of knowledge or information, that's okay. You'll be the first one to raise your hand and be like. You, I'd rather be a know at all than a kmow it all. Okay, so I'm not, i'm not afraid of ignorance. I know just enough information, like sometimes the fact that I don't know all the information is what keeps things spicy. This is what keeps me thinking, this is what cultivates my creativity and my curiosity. And you gotta think for yourself, this is what, this is how you think for yourself instead of waiting for everybody to fill in the blanks for you. No, you're just like, all right. So you don't be afraid of ignorance. The lack of information. The lack of knowledge. Okay. Again, that's an awareness. And I don't know, man, it's something about when you're not afraid of ignorance, there's a humble confidence about you. So you'll be the first one to raise your hand and be like, whew. No clue on that one. Tell me about it. Curiosity, creativity. Continuous learning. Well, tell me about that. Never heard about it like that. So see, now I'm, and then, or maybe there's nobody there, so I'm like, Hmm, okay, now I gotta think this one through. What do I have right now? Creativity, using what I have versus bitching about what I don't have. Curiosity. Well, what if. Instead of making these what if statements? Uh, I'm sorry, asking these what if questions instead of making these, you know, bland ass, judgmental statements. Well, I mean, you can't blah, blah, blah. No, no. And so don't be afraid of ignorance. You, you, you have that. That humble confidence about you, right? And you're not trying to be something you're not. This is how you stay authentic to yourself and to the world. And even, even though you're, even though there's some ignorance about you, lack of information, lack of knowledge, people are willing to, because you're not all propped up. I know this. Because you're not all like that. People are willing to invest their knowledge into you. They'll actually, because you have a willingness to learn that. Yeah. Yeah. And so they're, they're pouring into you and you're learning, and you have a sense of competence about you. You don't have all the answers. That's okay. And so you have. If you're not afraid of ignorance, you have that humble confidence about you, and yet you're still competent. You can hold your own. Okay. You may not hold the ultimate office, whatever that is, but you can hold your own and I love that. I love, I love just this, I love how this, this whole thing just kind of frames up fourth part. So we'll wrap this up. It's better to know less than we're able to know than to know more than we need to know. Do not be afraid of ignorance last part, but be afraid of anything superfluous or anything that can overburden you just so that you can boast about how much you know. All right, so don't be a, a afraid of, uh, but I'm sorry, fourth part, but beware of anything superfluous. Superfluous is basically unnecessary. Beware of a bunch of unnecessary bullshit you don't even need to know. Because Tolstoy says that can overburden you, and so you just get weighed down with a bunch of unnecessary things. Beware of that. Because it can overburden you just so you could boast about how much you know, you ever sat at the table with somebody like that? I mean, bro, they will, they will. They will tell you real quick what they've done in their life. They will brag and they will boast and they will criticize, and they will point the finger and they will just sit on their throne. I can't stand people like that. See, they'll brag, but they're not building. That's different. The builders we're like the doers, man. You remember the doers from Fraggle Rock? The little people with the little hard hats on. That's what we are there. There's the, there's the people who have superfluous information, a. Unnecessary information. Too much information, and the their chairs become the thrones, and they're judgmental, and they're cynical, and they point the flinger and they can tell you how the world works. Yet they don't participate in none of it. Those are dozer. They just bulldoze everything. But then you and I, man, we're the doers. Number one. We have the awareness that we don't know a lot. Okay? We learn just enough. And then we go out there and apply it. We're the ones who get the fingernails dirty. We're the ones who don't. We're not afraid of ignorance. The lack of information. The lack of knowledge. We don't need all sorts of certainty before we go out there and do it. No, fuck it. We'll just go do it. All right. We'll just use duct tape and plywood and old rusty nails and we'll just figure out how to stitch some shit up. And we learn along the way. We learn along the way, and we're not afraid of being, uh, embarrassed. We're not afraid of looking foolish. We're not, we're not afraid of anything. You know why? Because you're true to yourself, you're authentic. And I love being around people like that, right? I mean, just people like bro, they're just so like down to earth and yet so accomplished. I love people like that because they're not quick to just throw everything in your face, man. They're just. They're just building as they go. They're building the airplane as they go. And so I bring you this message because you, you, you may be in a couple of different ways right now. You may be looking at things like, oh, I need to learn more. I need to be more educated. I need, you know, to have these certain credentials. It's bullshit, man. It's complete bullshit. You, you don't. There, there's, you're never going to be at inbox zero where I know everything. And if you ever get to that point, you're fucked. You are because you're sitting there in the throne now you think that you've, bro, the fact I just zero it out every day, stay stupid, right? And I just did an episode on that the other day, like, keep things stupidly simple. I do. I do a little bit of random reading. I write about it, and then I make it a game. I go out there and try to learn it that day, and this is what, this is what this message is. It's just saying to always says, look, you don't all that extra, you don't need all that. Anyway. Okay. You need to, this is why I titled this episode, you, you need to learn just enough. Doing just enough and learning just enough are two totally different things. Doing just enough. You're really kind of cheating the system. You're, you're really cheating yourself. You're cheating your potential. You're cheating the opportunities when you do just enough. When you learn just enough. That means you learn, you, yes, you have a willingness to learn, but you don't sit there and have this, you know. Cowardly need of, well, I can't do anything yet. I need to learn a little bit more. Oh, fuck it. Push off. Get out there. Start with free. Earn what you need. Get to what you want. That's the three things I start with free. Start with whatever you have, earn what you need. Put in the reps, man, you need thousands of hours and reps just go and then earn what you want. Okay? That's that pro level, that's, that could be a decade from now. All right, so this is, this is what you gotta do. This is how you gotta live. And so get off that, that, that, that seat man, and just go participate. Go have fun with it. This is what keeps life spicy. It really does. It keeps life spicy. It keeps things fun. It keeps you growing. And this is why I love doing this podcast. All right. All right with that. Remember, keep it simple. Keep it moving. Never settle. Stay tough. All right, let's get outta here. Peace.